


Some choices are only meant to be made once

by Kara_luna



Series: My Naruto Tumblr Because I Don't Actually Have One [3]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Author Is Sleep Deprived, BAMF Sakura, Danzo i am so DONE with your shit, Everyone lives, F/M, Humor, No Smut, No Uchiha Massacre, On Hiatus, Romance, Time Travel, haruno parents are good parents who love their daughter, it is 1:03 i need SLEEP, kakashi is slowly dying, naruto is adorable, no beta we die like men, sakura is actually awesome now, sakura is useful, sakura's mom is badass, sasuke still sucks, send help, the haruno family gets the credit they deserve
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-14
Updated: 2019-09-08
Packaged: 2020-08-23 09:56:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 16,533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20240950
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kara_luna/pseuds/Kara_luna
Summary: Her village looked at her like she was a child playing with dolls, they looked at her like she was unaware of how bloody the life of a kunoichi was. They expected nothing from the pink-haired bimbo, but she tried anyway. But she didn't try hard enough. Because here she is dying on a battlefield, surrounded by war, with no living loved ones left. So this time around, she won't be sitting on the sidelines and she won't be letting anyone die, no massacres, no trauma, no avengers. No cold benches, or slamming orphanage doors, this time she was going to right the wrongs the world did to her family. This time Sakura was going to stare fate in the face and tell her to fuck off. And if she finally makes a mark on the world, well, no one ever said that Sakura Haruno wasn't selfish.The pairing was originally Sakura/Itachi, but I think I'll develop the story more since the romance will be a slow burn and later. If anyone would like to pitch who they think should end up with Sakura and why, I'll definetly take it into consideration when I make the final decision.





	1. Restart

The world has descended into chaos, there’s blood and gore and dying- so many dying people and there is  _ nothing  _ that she can do, and that hurts more than the feeling of Sasuke’s Chidori ripping a hole in her chest. 

The fake Chidori that may as well have been a real one, for the pain it sent rippling through her heart. One more chance, she’d given him. 

After the hundreds and hundreds before that he never actually asked for but her idiotic, lovesick self still gave.  _ Monster.  _

He was a monster, an empty carcass with no emotion or capacity to feel left in his cold heart if he even had one at all. 

But of course he did because it was where he had kept Naruto, where he’d stored the memories of Itachi, where he went to remember the family he lost, but she was never there with them. 

She was never his precious person, she was never loved by him.

**And it killed her. **

The war raged on, fierce and bloodthirsty and never sated in its hunger for more and more death. 

They had  _ lost.  _

Both arm’s broken and ankle shorn completely off on her left leg, Sakura dragged herself by her aching fingers towards Naruto’s corpse. 

A bloody trail was left by her body, she scrambled over the rock a short distance until she felt the familiar warmth of his orange jumpsuit.

All the happy memories they shared while he wore that damn jumpsuit hit her like a freight train and it took everything she had not to cry, but there was no sunny smile or brilliant eyes to look at her with far more love than she deserved, there was no comfort. 

And the tears leaked out anyway. 

_ How had everything spoiled so quickly?  _ She wrapped his corpse in her arms and made up for his lack of heat with her own,  _ Kami, please don’t leave me too.  _

There was no one left, Konoha was gone, every nation was gone, every _ one  _ was gone. All but her. 

**And that killed her. **

She was just an airheaded civilian girl, nothing special and nothing unordinary. 

She wasn’t supposed to live while they died, while prodigies and Kages and geniuses died, it wasn’t fair. 

_ It wasn’t fair.  _

So she said no. She looked at the battlefield, covered in corpses, covered in mangled bodies and blood and she said  **no. **

Because she wasn’t Naruto. 

She wasn’t Kakashi. 

She wasn’t fucking Sasuke. 

And she was too selfish to move on. 

So she stared into the eyes of a goddess and fingered the skin where Tsunade had branded a very specific seal.

_ Only in case we can’t win.  _

She stared into the eyes of a goddess and spread her blood-stained teeth into a smile. 

“Next time, I won’t lose.”

And in a flash of light and pain, Sakura’s world disappeared, crumbling to nothing. 

She woke with a start, in her brightly colored bedroom as she listened to the noise of her mother making breakfast.

Light cascaded through her curtains and she smiled, because somewhere out there, there was a little blond-haired menace vandalizing a monument. 


	2. Remembering

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, I'm as surprised as you are that I uploaded back to back chapters. I am very proud of my lazy ass. Enjoy, like, subscribe, rant down in the comments about how much you DESPISE Danzo. This chapter's a slow one but I wanted to establish some emotional stuff and the setting a bit more before really getting started, hope I don't bore you!

Sakura stretched, her shoulders popping. 

She was certainly a child again, by the hair, she was guessing after she revealed her “love” for Sasuke. 

_ Ack. _

The mass of bright pink hair was cascading over her shoulders, unruly and plentiful, sticking to the back of her neck in the summer heat, a sensation she hadn’t felt in years. 

_ I’ll have to get it cut. _

She slipped into the little red dress her mother had bought her several of, because she thought they were “ just adorable on my little princess.” 

She shuddered to remember the missions she had gone on with the ridiculous outfit before realizing how impractical it was.

Perhaps it was the 7 times that she nearly had her head cut off because her legs got tangled in the fabric, that finally prompted her to approach her mother about getting something more suitable to wear on missions. 

For now, the irritating dress would have to do, _ I’ll gradually introduce everyone to the idea that I’m not completely superficial and may actually have an interest in being a good kunoichi. Whether or not anyone would believe that, is yet to be decided. _

Now dressed, she knotted her long tresses into a bun. 

It seemed that her bangs weren’t going to be cooperative, as she blew the stray pieces of hair out of her eyes. 

Finally ready to face the unknown world beyond her door, she quietly descended the staircase. 

The scene caused her to pause for a split second and catch the breath she'd lost, her mother standing at the stove and humming as eggs and rice cooked while her father read the paper and cracked jokes that her mother insisted weren’t funny, even as she giggled along under her breath. 

_ Home. _

Warmth blossomed in her chest at the sight, this was what being home felt like and **kami**how she’d missed it. 

“Mama, Papa, I’m meeting up with Ino at the park today. I’ll be home for dinner.” She promised as she kissed her parents' cheek and made for the door. 

She may know that her and Ino’s friendship was over, but her parents were never told about it. 

“You won’t be going anywhere until you’ve had your breakfast, Sakura. I don’t care for that ‘diet’ you claim to be on, you’ll have a meal with your family as all proper 12-year-olds do," her mother whirled in an apron and pointed her spatula as a way of emphasizing her point. 

She felt herself stiffen, _my first ten minutes in the past and I've already messed up. _

"Yes, mom. I'm-" Sakura searched her mind for a subtle way to ask why her parents didn't seem to remember she should be in the academy today, not with Ino.

"I'm just excited, Ino and I want to practice more before our final exam at the academy." She held her breath as she turned to walk back to their small, brown kitchen table, her mother still occupied with her food and her father busy reading the paper. 

"Yes, well, you were given a day off for a reason, your teacher has a good head on his shoulders." Her mother aggressively flipped an egg. " I mean, honestly! These shinobi put far too much pressure on children."

_Oh, thank kami, _this must have been the day after Naruto got his hands-on some explosive tags for the first time.

_No more mistakes, I've got be more careful. _It was paramount that no one realizes what had happened to her, time travel was forbidden for a damn good reason, one that Sakura would not have usually disregarded.

At least now she knew her age, something she supposed was fairly important, she grudgingly admitted to herself. 

Breakfast with the parents she hadn’t seen in years would also be beneficial to get into character before she met any shinobi who outdid her parents in perceptiveness. 

Her mother was shrewd, but she was also a civilian and lacked decades of training and conditioning.

Perhaps she could glean some more information about her personality and what events hadn’t happened yet. 

She was 12 and therefore set to graduate this year, team 7 would be recreated a bit earlier than she’d expected, admittedly, it would be difficult to deal with the trauma that seemed to consume each member, even with her decades of experience. 

Dealing with Kakashi’s overwhelming guilt, Sasuke’s burning hatred, and Naruto’s crushing loneliness. 

Two of those people she had watched die through tears and a bloody haze, one of them had done the killing. 

Her mother’s stern expression softened into something more gentle as she seemed to notice Sakura’s restlessness to get out of the house and start her day. 

“You’ll be leaving for missions soon, why don’t you spend your last academy days enjoying the things you’ll be missing once classes end?”

Sakura paused at that. Because-

She was right. 

Sakura fought the emotions bubbling up inside her, plastering on a sunny grin and settling into her chair. 

_ The thing’s I’ll be missing. _

She **had **missed being a child, eating breakfast in a warm, cozy kitchen, being at ease without needing to constantly scan her surroundings for enemies. 

After everything the world had taken from her, after all the pain and loss, the world would just have to deal with it. 

After everything the world took from her, she was taking something back.

The smile became softer and more genuine as her mother served the delicious smelling meal and her father set down his newspaper to enjoy her company, before she darted off on what he probably thought was a trip to the market to look at clothes or to gather flowers in the woods while Ino went on about each plant's meaning. 

Yup, her smile was definitely genuine. 


	3. Ramen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, my god! Okay, it's happening. Everybody stay calm. What's the procedure, - everyone? What's the procedure? Stay *** calm! Wait, wait, wait! Everybody, now *** calm down! Oh my gosh, something's actually HAPPENED?! I know, I'm surprised too. Apparently, I write stories that are very slowwwww. Sorry about that, maybe the speed of uploads will make up for it, who knows. Enjoy and comment the character you hate the most in Naruto.

After finishing her food, Sakura once again kissed her parents' goodbye, and then she was off. 

The door swung shut behind her as she gazed out at the village. 

Just in case, her eyes found the monument, high up on the mountain face where the sun glinted off the stone and gave it the look of shimmering gold, there were 4 proud faces staring back at her.

The first Hokage Hashirama Senju, his brother Tobirama Senju, their student Hiruzen Sarotobi, and finally, Naruto’s father, Minato Namikaze. 

That familiar ache flared up in her chest as she once again realized that she had lost every friendship she had built after the age of twelve, the people around her wouldn’t remember her at all, and Naruto would never meet his parents. 

Because this time, she would make sure that the Fourth Great Ninja War never happens, meaning that Minato would never be resurrected. 

_ At least there was one good thing to come out of that damn war. _

Sakura took a deep breath, the air free of ash and sulfur, and allowed herself to enjoy the sun’s rays as she began to make her way through the village. 

She had expected to pass by fewer buildings, the Kyubi’s attack had been quite devastating and 12 years was not a lot in comparison to the damage, yet she swore when she passed the 20th building she’d never seen before, that the village was **more** crowded. 

_ Perhaps I was so used to the number of buildings, I never noticed how many there were. _

It was- disconcerting. 

Watching people bustle about the market, selling fruit, haggling over fish, and dragging ornery children away from Dango shops, it was beautiful in the most mundane way. 

And there it was, a memory-filled ramen shop, owned by a kind old man and his caring daughter, two of the special and rare breed of people who saw Naruto for who he really was. 

A lonely child who wanted nothing more than a friend. 

Ichiraku. 

She discreetly slipped onto one of the stools and glanced up at Ayame as she came bustling out from the back of the shop.

“Hello! What would you like to order?” Sakura flashed her a warm smile.

“Beef miso ramen, please.” She grinned right back, no hesitation to be kind to a stranger. 

“Of course, it will only be a minute.” 

Sakura gently drummed her fingers along the counter, falling deep into her own thoughts. 

She was 12, Sasuke was in the village, the Third Hokage was alive.

First, she would eat, then head down to a training field and see how much of her abilities had stayed with her after her time-traveling escapade. 

When it came to big-picture things she needed to accomplish, killing Danzo and rescuing Sai were the first tasks, she’d wait till the chunin exams to deal with Orochimaru and saving the Lord Third, perhaps once that was all done, she could tell the Hokage about her journey and he could assist her in defeating black Zetsu and by extension, Madara. 

“Here’s your ramen, please ask if there’s anything else I can get you!” Ayame’s cheerful voice broke her from her thoughts, she gently nodded to the other girl before breaking her chopsticks and beginning her meal. 

The ramen was familiar and warm, her breakfast may have been filling, but the memories eating at the ramen shop brought was well worth the bloated stomach. 

She slapped a couple hundred yen on the counter before continuing on her way through the streets, halfway to training ground 3, she stopped abruptly. 

Someone behind her bumped into her back and gave her a dirty look for pausing without warning in such a crowded marketplace, but Sakura didn’t notice him. 

Out of all the routes she could have taken, she chose the only one that passed by the Uchiha district, one part of the village that she had no desire to see. 

_ Next time, I’ll be ready to see it next time. _She didn’t need to say it out loud to know how unconvincing the lie would sound. 

* * *

Once she'd arrived at her destination, she'd began her katas, flowing from one to the other, her shorter limbs made it difficult to do the more advanced taijutsu forms, but the academy’s katas were easy enough for her to manage. 

After the first hour, sweat was trickling down her back and her shirt stuck to her body rather uncomfortably in the heat. 

A familiar burn along her muscles told her that her endurance certainly had not transferred to her younger body, _ now to see how my chakras changed. _

She smirked as she focused on moving the energy at her core into her hand and slammed her fist into the ground. 

_ SHANNARO! _

The ground burst open in a shower of dirt and grass, a crater, about 5 feet by 5, was formed by the punch. Compared to her past abilities it was a pretty weak hit, but it was certainly impressive for an academy student. _ I don’t think I have enough chakra for this. _

Her thoughts trailed off as she swayed, apparently it wasn’t her smartest idea to impulsively punch the ground and hope she had enough chakra to handle it. 

The world blurred and her eyes glazed over, black creeping into her vision at the edges. 

As she tipped, she drowsily waited for the feeling of impact and rock against her side, something covered in black and white emerged in front of her. 

Something warm and gentle caught her, pulling her against their chest, through the last of her high brain function, Sakura realized whoever it was, was now aware of her inhuman strength. 

Finally, she lost her loose hold on consciousness, letting her entire body weight rest in the tall stranger's arms. 

If she had kept herself awake a moment longer, she would have heard the shinobi’s soft voice.

“You should be more careful, Sakura.”


	4. Returning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soooooo, I literally posted the first chapter to this yesterday at 1:30. I was lying in bed and couldn't sleep and all of a sudden I just HAD to write this story. Funny enough, I planned nothing ahead and the second, third, and fourth chapters were all written entirely today. I am shocked by my own productivity. I bet the next update will be in October 2022. Anyway, please enjoy!

The muffled sound of pots clanging was the first thing Sakura’s tired mind noticed, the second was the soft bed under her. 

_ Bed?  _

Groggily she shifted as she strained to remember what happened earlier. Had she walked home? 

With a jolt of panic, Sakura sprang up, spine as stiff as a board.

_ I punched the ground and my chakra- my chakra! This is chakra exhaustion! But why- who- _

Questions whirled through her mind like a hurricane, quick and hard to grasp or examine, confusion fogged her ability to see the memories she must have had from yesterday. 

_ I was at a training ground, yes training ground 3 and- well I fainted. But then- that  _ ** _was _ ** _ a person! Why were they nearb- shit. _

They’d seen. They must have at least seen the crater from her punch, surely they’d be smart enough to figure it out, as long as they weren’t Naruto at least. 

_ Black and white. Zetsu? _

Was it even possible it could find her here? 

But then who? 

Who who who, that was the question. 

She pulled her heavy limbs from the comfort of her mattress, shivering at the cool air, she was still in her training clothes, she noticed. 

_ Whoever found me also brought me home.  _

She flexed her fists as she sat heavily on her bed. 

_ If I’m your enemy, why would you help me? Why would you bring me home-  _ ** _no. oh no, oh no oh no oh no no no no they know where I live!_ **

Sakura surged to her feet and ran as fast as her worn body could move, slamming the door open, bare feet slapping against the hardwood floors as she nearly fell down the stairs. 

_ Please please be alive. Please mama, papa, don’t  _ ** _leave me again. _ **

She whipped around the banister and-

“Ah Sakura, I didn’t realize you were home, would you mind grabbing the pot lid over by the freezer, sweetheart?” 

Her mother turned, hair frizzy from the stove's heat and pointing at the lid that was a few feet from the food she was cooking, the smell of chicken and stew filled the air in a welcome embrace. 

“Mama…” She whimpered in a broken whisper. 

The relief, the fear, and the panic came crashing down on her all at once, crushing and smothering and pushing, the pressure- it was so much- too much-stop stop stop s tops tsstop tsopts-

And for the first time in two decades, Sakura broke down. 

“Sakura! What’s wrong?! I’m here, little one, it’s okay Mama’s here…”

The tears blurred Sakura’s vision but she couldn’t mistake the form of her mother abandoning their dinner to rush to her daughter, gentle, cool hands caressed her head as she was pulled into an embrace that smelled of tomatoes and cooking spray. 

She sobbed as her mother brushed back her bangs and checked her forehead for a fever, shushing her kindly and holding Sakura as she quaked with the force of her tears. 

“Mama- I just- I… I had a nightmare.” She croaked out.

“Oh, darling that’s alright. Come on, I’ll bring dinner up to you later, I think it’s best if you rest. It seems it gave you quite a scare.”

Her mother gently hoisted Sakura into her arms like a bride, she wondered briefly how strong her mother truly was, to carry her 12-year-old daughter couldn’t have been easy. 

Vaguely Sakura heard what must have been the door opening and from her position with her face pressed into her mother’s neck, she couldn’t see her room, but she could feel it was her bed when she was laid on it. 

The covers were pulled over her shivering body and her mother kissed her with warm lips on the forehead she had spent so many years hating. 

“Mom?” 

“Hmm..” She opened her eyes to watch her mother push back her bangs and locked eyes with her.

“Did you ever want to be a kunoichi?” Her mother considered her with a tilted head.

“Yes.” Sakura felt her eyes widen in surprise.

“Really?” 

“Oh yes, once upon a time.” Her mother chuckled at the shock written across her features. “I dreamed of being large and strong, being a hero and someday marrying a fierce, handsome shinobi. But when I was young, a third war erupted and I was faced with the true horror of shinobi work. I don’t- Sakura-” 

Her mother took a breath to steady herself, closing her eyes for a moment before continuing. 

“You were like me when I was young. You saw war as heroic and noble, you looked at the Hokage with stars in your eyes. I was scared perhaps… Perhaps you would join their world. And perhaps it would eat you alive.” 

Sakura’s breath caught at the reflective film over her mother’s eyes, tears that her mom was far too strong to let drop. 

And for the first time in her life, she understood her mother’s apprehension to let her daughter be a kunoichi. 

It was never because she didn’t love Sakura enough to let her choose. 

It was because she wanted her daughter to live past 15. 

* * *

  
  


The next morning, Sakura was woken by a knock at the door and her mother's voice through the wood.

“Sakura, are you ready? You'll be late if you don't leave soon. Are you sure you don’t want to stay home today?”

“Ya mama, I’ll be okay.” She lifted herself from the covers and began preparing herself for the academy. 

The first time she would see many of her life long friends, all young and fresh-faced and alive, that was far more than she could ever ask for. 

Pulling on another identical red dress, Sakura tried with every fiber of her being to not do something rash about it. 

_ Well, I tried. _

She took a kunai and slashed off the fabric that usually hung between her legs, grabbing some black shorts to replace it. 

“Finally feeling like myself again.” Her lips quirked at herself in the mirror, viridian eyes wandering to her hair, and then the kunai. 

_ I don’t want to give my poor mom a heartache, I’ll… do it later. _

She rested the kunai back into the weapon pouch she had on the night table, the academy forced students to only use their special dulled weapons, she couldn’t bring her own, sadly. 

There was something about leaving her weapon’s pouch behind that made her feel strangely bare without it, she debated smuggling it in as her hand rested on the doorknob.

In the end, she decided it simply wasn’t worth it. 

She quietly closed her door and made her way to the kitchen where her father was sitting and sipping on a green tea, chocolate sauce concoction that always made Sakura’s nose wrinkle in disgust. 

Her father glanced up, a bright smile appearing below his purple mustache, “Off already, little flower?”

“Ya…” She felt her mouth stretch into a smile on its own, she gently hugged her dad, the smell of his tea nearly upsetting her stomach.

“Dad! How can you even  **drink ** that?!” He laughed at her disgusted expression, focusing on a sudoku puzzle she hadn’t even seen. 

Shaking her head, she turned to her mother on the couch who seemed to be knitting something red,  _ of course, it’s fucking red.  _

“I’m heading out to the academy, mum.” Glancing up from her work, her mother smiled.

“Alright, we’ll see you once you get back, your bento box is on the counter by that pot of- Whatever it is your father drinks.” 

Giggling she grabbed the bento and waved to her parents as the door swung shut behind her. 

Leaning against the dark brown wood, she let herself breathe slow and deep, holding it in before letting it out again. 

Pushing away, she began her walk, passing through the same area as before, she once again paused and promised  _ next time, next time I’ll be able to handle the empty buildings. _

The lie was still clear and detectable in her thoughts. 

She turned and walked a different route to the school.

The summer seemed to have reached it’s halfway mark, the Sakura trees were free of leaves and bare, spring long gone at this point. 

The bustle in the street wasn’t as bad as yesterday, but she supposed it fluctuated, she was so used to using the rooftops that she’d forgotten. 

It was along her newly changed path that she spotted Kurenai-sensei speaking to a man by a dango shop, they seemed to be discussing something personable. 

She slowed her pace and pretended to be considering the dango shop instead of the conversation in front of it. 

It was funny, actually. She had been nervous for Asuma-sensei for a moment, that perhaps her very presence had already changed history, but when she actually paid attention to Kurenai-sensei’s companion, it was easy to see by his laugh lines and deep-set eyes, he was old enough to be her father. 

Shaking her head, she continued to her destination, it was close enough she could see the roof poking up over the buildings in front of it. 

Parents stood in the front lawn, children whining about wanting to skip school and a few annoyed at their parents for their public shows of affection, but as soon as Sakura had arrived, her eyes were fixed to a rickety old swing hanging from a tree in the corner. 

A swing that was… empty. 

Confusion creased her brow, but she shook off the foreboding feeling and simply chalked it up to Naruto already being in class. 

Now that she took the time to look at the other children, she realized that there were only a few families still there, mostly with bratty kids who wanted nothing to do with the ninja academy. 

Stepping around a first-year throwing a tantrum, she slipped through the front door and made her way down the hall.

It was nostalgic, how similar it was to her memories, even though her mind reasoned, it was the exact same because she was simply reliving those memories. 

Yet no matter how homely it felt, there was still a slight feeling of dread that curled in the pit of her stomach as she stepped up to her classroom door. 

With one final deep, calming breath, Sakura wrenched the door open and stepped into the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh, by the way, you guys may not wanna focus too hard on the unknown stranger who took Sakura home, it may just blind you to a far bigger and more important mystery going on.... I did leave hints, it's up to you guys to figure out what those hints are for ;)


	5. Reintroductions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey peeps, so I’m gonna try to upload a chapter a day up until I go back to the school. After that point, no promises. Read and weep, comment and kudos. Actually don’t weep, I’ll feel like a horrible person for making you cry. Anyway, gotta go! Watching a horror movie tonight!!

The loud ruckus didn’t as much as slow, when Sakura made her grand entrance into the room where it all started. 

Rows of desks pointed to the black chalkboard in the front, an entire class of children were covering the area, yelling and pushing and even a few who were **not **acting like six year olds on crack. 

She made her way through the crowd, ducking a spit ball that she heard hit a boy behind her, moving around a group of gossiping girls, and accidently locked eyes with Ino. 

Readying herself for the verbal sparring, she continued towards the back row where shikamaru was napping on Ino’s right and Choji’s left. His orange haired friend just happened to have his head stuck in a rather large chip bag. 

She opened her mouth but was cut off by Ino’s blinding smile as she slid her arm through Sakura’s and tugged her into the seat beside her. 

“Look!” Ino squealed in her ear, pointing towards the other side of the room.

Through the mass of bodies she was able to see that Sasuke was-

_ He’s sitting next to Naruto?! _

“I thought they hated each other.” She murmured, hardley paying attention to the girl beside her who heard and responded to her comment. 

“I KNOW right?! No one actually knows how they know each other, like at all,” she flipped her hair over her shoulder, “ and trust me. If anyone knew what was up with them, it would **definitely **be me.” 

Sakura chuckled at Ino’s antics, tuning her out as she began a rant on conditioner and how to properly style your hair and Shikarmaru is such a lazy butt, I swear his hair would fall out if he took it out of that ponytail, so on and so forth. 

_ I suppose my presence has changed things then. I used to come to school as early as possible to beat Ino for the chair next to Sasuke, perhaps this is what would have happened if I’d come later. But, Ino just forgot about our fight, she’s never done that before, she’s always been fiercely competitive to a fault. Was it really just the companionship Naruto and Sasuke seemed to suddenly have with each other, that did it? _

It made sense… kind of. But she couldn’t help but feel like that couldn’t be it. There was something- something off about everything since she’d woken up, she just couldn’t put her finger on it-

“Come on everyone, let’s find our seats and settle down! Ame leave koka alone, shikamaru wake up before I call your father, Ino help Choji get that bag off his head before he suffocates, and for the LOVE OF KAMI NARUTO GET OFF OF SASUKE!”

The class burst into laughter as they settled into their seats, watching as Iruka-sensei tried to pry Naruto off of Sasuke, and getting kicked at every attempt. 

Even Choji was laughing and his voice was muffled by the chip bag that Ino still couldn’t pry off his head, hinata who was sitting in front of them with Kiba and another girl Sakura didn’t recognize, was starting to go red in the face from watching her crush get in trouble. 

_ Just like old times. _She thought with a satisfied smile as Iruka-sensei finally began teaching and the class continued their secret antics with greater stealth than before. 

The smile slipped off her lips as she remembered the exact reason why she wasn’t like everyone else. 

She had a world of changes to make before shit hit the fan and so far, she hadn’t done anything but pass out from chakra exhaustion. 

_ And exposing my only real advantage to a mysterious stranger who very well could be an enemy. _

A cold shiver traveled down her spine as she glanced out the window and watched bright green leaves dance in the wind outside, twirling, spiralling, and gliding. 

Resting her face on her hand she imagined she was one of those leaves, she imagined she didn’t have a burden the size of Kurama on her tiny, preteen shoulders.

* * *

The final exam to graduate the academy was a week later and in order to look like a normal child and work on her chakra reserves, Sakura had practiced each day after school with Ino. 

She had attempted to talk to Naruto often, but he always seemed to disappear as soon as class ended, same with Sasuke. 

The only time she was able to see either of them was during class, however each time she approached them before Iruka-sensei arrived or right when he dismissed them, a fight would break out. 

Why Iruka-sensei didn’t simply separate them, she had no idea. 

She would understand if they were from important clans, moving them could upset some powerful people, but Sasuke was the last of his clan and Naruto was an orphan. 

It didn’t make sense.

The weirdest part was definitely the fact that Sasuke seemed much mellower and relaxed while Naruto wasn’t bothered by bullies or the other teachers.

Perhaps that was also something that her memories exaggerated? 

Or maybe Sasuke only truly starting going off the rails after he graduated. 

She continued to ponder the oddities of her knew life when Ino poked her with a pen.

“Hmm?” She glanced up to see the class watching her, Ame and her minions started snickering.

“Sakura, I asked you to explain why hand signs are used when fighting with jutsu.” Iruka-sensei reprimanded from the front of the room, he looked vaguely disappointed in her. 

_ Well, we can’t have sensei think I’m slacking off, now can we? _

Sakura straightened, smiled sweetly, and stared Iruka-sensei in the eye as she responded. 

“The hand signs allow a person to better focus their chakra into a specific design required by the Justu to have the desired effects, a collection of seals are sometimes used, usually the more advanced the technique, the more hand signs are needed.” 

Even after all these years, her answer was still word for word from the textbooks, Iruka-sensei looked more than pleased that his most academic student wasn’t losing her touch before the exams, and returned to writing on the chalkboard. 

Sakura’s most difficult task that day, was sitting still through the entire lesson, despite the fact that she had already learned all of this in her past life. 

The moment the bell rang at the end of class, Sakura was jumping to her feet and zipping out the door and down the hallway. She faintly heard Ino yelling to her in surprise, “Where are you **going**, Sakura-chan?!”

There was too much buzzing through her head at the moment, it was something that she had finally realized. 

She didn’t need to find a way to Danzo, she simply needed him to come to her. 

A faint smirk curled her lips as she hurried down her usual route to the training fields, the exam was tomorrow, she’d be meeting her team the day after, she needed to decide how to handle her trauma inclined teammates before she was stuck with the mess that is team 7. 

Discarding her things by a large tree on training ground 3’s left corner, she began warming up. 

Kakashi would usually be hard to fool, but Sakura knew him better than anyone else, he won’t be looking for anything wrong with her. 

He would look at her skills and name, but for the other two, he’d also be examining their mental state in order to understand just how much damage he was being tasked with smoothing over. 

_ Just sit in the back and look pretty. Show enough skill that he just might think I could be qualified as a genius, then hold back. Let him think I have no idea that I’m anything special. I need Danzo’s attention, not Kakashi’s. _

Slipping into her last heel stretch, she straightened, ready to begin her Katas when she heard a shout from behind her. 

Wheeling around, she was barely able to dodge the fuuma shuriken slicing through the air towards her, big enough to match the one Zabuza had used. 

Knocking herself to the ground to duck under it, she whipped around to watch it stab almost entirely through the tree her stuff was lying beneath. 

_ Lord Kami, what the _ ** _hell-_ **

“Oh no, I KILLED AN ACADEMY STUDENT!” A girl’s voice behind her squeaked in horror. 

As Sakura turned, another voice joined the first, “You missed her completely, Tenten, compose yourself. It is unfitting for a shinobi.”

Her eyes slowly rose from the dirt to lock onto a pair of pearly, pupilless eyes framed by long brown hair and a scowl. 

Tenten, who stood beside Neji, pushed past him to offer her hand, “I’m soooo sorry about that! I **never **miss, but I was practicing on training ground four with my larger weapons on Neji's eight trigrams palm rotation and they all got deflected! We’ve been on a mission since the Sunday before last week, someone must have been practicing fire justus there while we were gone because there were WAY fewer trees than I thought…”

Sakura sweatdropped as Tenten continued to haphazardly explain what happened, reassuring her it wouldn’t happen next time, Neji standing to the side with a perfected expression of “I’m too far above you peasants to care for your ridiculous conversations.” 

“Really, it’s alright, no damage done!” She reassured Tenten, whom then preceded to grin infectiously at Sakura.

“I’m just glad you didn’t get your head cut off! I’m Tenten,” She stuck out her hand for Sakura to shake. 

Readily, she took her old friend’s hand and shook it, “I’m Sakura. I was just running through some academy katas before my exam tomorrow.”

Tenten looked sympathetic while Neji simply rolled his eyes (she’s pretty sure he did, but the whole no pupil thing, made it hard to tell) and stalked back through the few trees that remained, to his and Tenten’s training ground. 

“Well, good luck on graduating, and once you’ve got a team, we should spar!” Tenten enthusiastically tore the shuriken from the tree, the shuriken that was larger than she was and nonchalantly hefted it over her shoulder. 

Sakura swallowed in the slight fear of fighting someone with that much muscle mass, while her arms currently looked like soggy noodles. 

Nevertheless, she plastered her usual grin on and yelled as the older girl went to catch up with her teammate, “I’d love to!”

A warm feeling curled in her stomach as she watched Tenten’s back disappear through the foliage. 

It was amazing to see her again, so carefree and happy. The fact that Neji was standing there beside her almost felt surreal, he had died in the first couple months of the war, a surprise ambush with the white Zetsu they hadn’t known about before. 

He was a war hero, but as a child, he was also a prick. Giggling to herself she grabbed her bag from the now lopsided tree and made her way home. 

_ At least now I have a clue. Someone was here last week practicing powerful and large-scaled fire jutsus that ripped right through the vegetation. Training ground four is closer to three than two is, it would make sense that whoever destroyed those trees also came to my “rescue.” _

Sakura allowed a small part of herself to feel smug over the fact, the mystery shinobi could obviously perform some impressive Jutsu, but her punch was enough to make them drop everything and come investigate. 

If she was asked about this a few years later, she would admit that thinking she was anywhere near the other person in regards to skill, was a truly foolish thing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thebibliophile_rises thanks for the idea of making Tenten and Sakura friends! It works soooo great with her the fact she’s always at the training grounds and it introduces her to other character from the original series without it being forced. Hoped you liked it!


	6. Relationships

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, the chapter took so long, for my dad's bday, I'm creating an original song. So I have to write an original score, match up the tempo with the lyrics, and write the stupid lyrics. I am not a musical person, I play NO instruments, I have never learned to play the piano, which happens to be the instrument for this song, but I really wanna do this for my dad. He LOVES music. It took me 10 hours yesterday and I'm not even close to done! It's harder than I thought, anyway, I haven't had time to write so I'm writing now at like 9:00, hope this chapter doesn't suck. Oh and sorry for all the lines in between scenes, I wanted to fit in as much as possible, so describing each transition and set was wayyyy too much trouble. I gotta get the ball moving at some point.
> 
> This used to be a chapter with over 4,000 words but I'm gonna split it into two chapters cause it's a weird jump to have chapters with 2,000 words each and then suddenly there's just one chapter with over 4,000.

Sakura awoke at the crack of dawn, ran through a couple of stretching exercises, and got dressed for her last day of class. 

She couldn’t stop the grin spreading across her face as she slipped on another dress she’d “tailored” and her shorts. 

Hair tied back and forehead ready for the feeling of cool metal and fabric, she practically skipped downstairs to the kitchen. 

Her mother had left a bento out for her before going to bed, knowing her daughter would be up before her parents were if the excitement vibrating off Sakura during dinner was anything to go by. 

A small note wishing her luck and a crudely drawn frog nearly made her cry. 

It looked so much like the little scribbles that Naruto would leave on his mission reports before handing them in to her, a little drawing to brighten her monotone days. 

Her heart squeezed painfully with the reminder of another life, another world, even, where she lived as a completely different person. 

Sakura made sure to be extra careful with her bento box on the way to the academy, last time she took the graduation exam, her mother had made her favorite salmon uramaki and she was fairly sure her mother had made it for her this time, as well. 

The classroom was bustling with activity when she finally arrived, Ino immediately waving her over to fill her in on the latest gossip and just who she personally thought wasn’t going to pass the exams. 

A sub-conscience part of her mind notes that Naruto wasn't on Ino's "going to fail" list. Perhaps if she'd paid more attention during the first week of being in the past, especially in moments like this, she would have been in for less of a nasty shock later on. But hindsight is 20/20...

Being pulled to her usual seat next to the future team ten had become a bit of a routine. 

Watching Choji snack, Shikamaru nap, and Ino gab had become a constant in her nonsensical day to day life. 

So had watching the other half of the room where her two teammates were always seated, so close yet still out of reach. 

_ As soon as we’re assigned to the same team, I’ll finally be able to start building a relationship with them. Finally, they’ll stop with their damn vanishing trick. _

One by one, each student was called up by the teacher, disappeared through the doorway, and either came back smiling with a proud headband or looking miserable as they slumped into their seat, forehead bare. 

“Sakura Haruno.” And finally it was her turn, Ino squeezed her hand gently as she passed, mouthing ‘good luck.’

Nodding to her friend, Sakura made her way to Iruka-sensei’s side and was ushered into the exam room. 

It was small with not much of note, other than the judge's panel sitting in wait before her. As a child, she had not recognized that hungry look in their eyes, but now she understood the glinting in their irises as they watched her and her classmates. It was the same flash of light she'd seen in Danzo's eyes when he looked at Sai. Sai...

** _Focus._ ** _ I'll find him, I'll kill Danzo, I'll **fix **it, but now I need to focus. _

Squaring her shoulders she stared right back at the adults watching her every move, before proceeding to blow her academy's practical combat scores out of the water.

With relative ease, given how small her chakra supply had been, to begin with, she performed every jutsu they threw at her, clone techniques, henges, and even a small bout of taijutsu. 

All in all, when she finished, her weak body already sweating, she had certainly outdone her last graduation exam. 

Iruka-sensei’s grin made his scar scrunch at the edges making his nose wrinkle, an expression she remembered all too clearly from a decade in the future when she watched him marry the love of his life. He mouthed a "good job" before handed her a gleaming forehead protector, slipping it over her head and knotting it under her ponytail, she felt a feeling of familiarity surge up within herself. 

_ It feels good to be a genin again. _

And then, while her confidence was still high and her memories still vibrant, she wrapped her arms around Iruka-sensei's waist and squeezed gently, feeling his surprised chuckle before kindly hugging her back. 

"You'll make a fine kunoichi someday, Sakura-chan." He smiled warmly at her, even ruffled her hair before she turned to join the other successful, new genin. 

_ You're going to get married someday, Iruka-sensei. You're going to feel so happy, you'll fear your hearts gonna burst. And this time, your beloved won't die on a battlefield. Some things are meant to be changed. _

Emerging back into the classroom, she lifted her head high and grinned at Ino as she made her way to her friend, matching forehead protectors gleaming against their skin. 

_ I would be worried about Naruto failing the exam, but if I remember correctly, failing is how he learns his favorite technique and finally warms up to Iruka-sensei. _

Tracing the symbol on her forehead protector, Sakura decided that some things weren’t meant to be changed by time travelers, some things were just better left alone.

* * *

The fresh new shinobi headed home for a night of rest before they were assigned their teams the next day, those who failed would not be returning until classes began again next year. 

That night was even more exciting than the night prior, Sakura would finally be seeing her teacher again and hopefully would be able to have a conversation with at least one of her teammates. 

She didn’t bother on a breakfast that morning, stomach too knotted and churning to hold any food, when she arrived before the academy doors, the feeling only intensified. 

However, when she actually entered the classroom, she was not expecting the pandemonium that had hidden behind the classroom's sliding door. 

Three desks had been flipped over, Shikamaru appeared to have given up on life, lying between the knocked over tables with a full open textbook laying on his face. 

Choji was being chased around the room by a calm Shino who seemed to be patiently introducing Choji to his pet spider, who, Sakura noted, was very much venomous. 

That did not even begin to compare to the scene of Sasuke gagging into a trash pail, Naruto wiping his tongue with a chalk eraser while Hinata was passed out on the floor looking like a tomato, Ino frantically attempting to wake her up and shoo a hovering Kiba away at the same time. 

_ I lived through a war, I watched everyone I loved die, the man I was in love with tried to murder me, all so that I could go through puberty a second time and deal with this shit?! _

Nope, she decided, turning on her heel she marched to the only desk in the back row that hadn’t been toppled and proceeded to ignore the other children’s existence, murdering a classmate would make a bad first impression on Kakashi, she was fairly certain-

The door burst open, startling Sakura from her slouched position, and in stomped a very pissed off looking Iruka-sensei with only eyes for one person. 

Naruto. 

“NARUTO UZUMAKI put down the chalk eraser, you will be paying for that!” His voice boomed throughout the room as the more sensible team 8 and 10 lunged for their seats, Shikamaru plopped down on the fallen desks and pretended to be unconscious, Choji and Ino took to the row in front of Sakura. Naruto, apparently thought that moment was a good time to blurt out his reasoning for trying to eat an eraser. 

“But Iruka-nii chan Sasuke-bastard put his stupid mouth on mine!” 

_ Ah. So they kiss this time too, no wonder Sasuke was gagging, I remember Naruto’s “hygiene” at this age… _

Shuddering Sakura watched Iruka-sensei deflate in pure exhaustion, muttering to the two boys, one of which had finally taken his face out of the waste paper bin to death glare his tablemate, to just sit down and let him pawn them off to other teachers, permanently. 

“Alright, the first is Team 7…”

_Sakura Haruno, Sasuke Uchiha, and Naruto Uzumaki._

“Next is Team 8…” 

_Hinata Hyuga, Shino Aburame, and Kiba Inuzuka. _

“The last one before I can finally escape you gremlins, Team 10…”

_ Shikamaru Nara, Ino Yamanaka, and Choji Akamichi. _

“Your senseis should be here in a few minutes, I trust nothing- “ He looked pointedly towards a pouting Naruto and a particularly murderous looking Sasuke. 

_ I guess some things never change, huh? _

“-will happen in the time between my departure and your new teachers arr-” The chunin’s speech cut off in surprise as the door slid open. 

Tall stature, wild-looking silver hair, and one visible eye, the masked Copy nin stood before Sakura’s class, Sakura who had, in her shock, let her jaw drop. 

Apparently, the other members of Team 7 weren’t very interested because they were once again at each other’s throats, though this time Sasuke looked like he was one insult away from strangling Naruto, while usually he looked like 2 or 3 insults away, give or take. 

“Maa maa, I do believe there are three genin students I’m meant to be picking up?” Unlike Sakura, Iruka-sensei wasn’t anywhere near as disturbed by the fact that. KAKASHI. HATAKE. WAS. **EARLY**, as her academy teacher definitely should have been. 

_ I feel a bit faint. _

Sakura had finally closed her mouth, just to realize she was being waited on, scrambling to grab her bag, she carefully made her way down the front. She had to be extra careful due to the mess the other students had made only minutes prior. 

Kakashi seemed off, his gaze was sharper than she was used to, no crinkled eye smiles or small orange book. 

No being late. 

_ I didn’t do this, so it begs the question. Who the hell did? _

* * *

It took a while and quite a bit of patience on Kakashi’s part, patience Sakura simply didn’t have, to finally get the boys to the rooftop. 

Sasuke had apparently said something taunting Naruto about not being able to walk on walls and Naruto, being the over-enthusiastic idiot he was, decided that was a great way to get to the roof and outdo Sasuke at the same time. 

Thank Kami for Kakashi, or there would be a Naruto sized splat permanently painted on the ground next to the academy. 

Speaking of Kakashi, he had made them sit in the same way he had in her time, yet he wasn’t… **saying **anything. 

Just sort of… staring at them expectedly. 

Of course, Naruto was the first to crack. Jumping up and pointing at their teacher like a maniac, “What the hell are you doing -ttebayo!”

Cocking his head like one of his dog summons, Kakashi- Well Kakashi-**sensei**, regarded naruto, unimpressed by his outburst. 

“He’s testing our patience dobe,” Sasuke stated without breaking his one-sided eye contact with Kakashi-**sensei**, and just like that, their bickering started anew. 

Their new teacher turned his attention to Sakura, grey eyes so dark they were almost black, peering at her as if he was peeling back her skin to examine how each of her organs worked. 

She suppressed a shiver. 

“Girl, introduce yourself, anything you deem important for us to know and your name.” His voice was clipped and professional in a way she had never heard before. 

“Sakura Haruno, I come from a family of civilians and my goal is to surpass the Slug Sannin Tsunade in both combat and healing abilities.” 

The boys had stopped to listen, Sasuke looked almost- approving? No no, that was just his “I don’t think your completely useless face,” ** _don’t _ ** _ get it confused. _

Naruto looked to have finally noticed her existence. 

“Hey, Sakura-chan! I’m Naruto Uzumaki and I’m gonna be the best Hokage in the whole world, believe it!” 

His shining grin was too bright for her to stop the smile upturning her lips. 

“I’m sure we were all very excited to hear your declarations, orange kid. Brooding Uchiha, it’s your turn next.”

Sakura bent her head forwards to shield her eyes with her bangs, no one needed to see her roll her eyes so far back in her head, they could get stuck. 

“I’m Sasuke Uchiha and…”

_ Ya ya, you don’t like anything, you want to kill your brother, your an avenger, yatta yatta. _Sakura was only slightly guilty to admit she spaced out completely before Sasuke even began his answer. 

It wasn’t because the memories of his hatred would resurface if she listened. It wasn’t because she was scared to acknowledge the horrors his goals had driven him to commit once. 

It wasn’t. 

She was just tired. 

It was Kakashi-sensei who broke her from her thoughts, standing and beginning to walk away while calling over his shoulder, “Tomorrow, we will be in Training ground 7 at 6:30 sharp.” 

He paused and turned back, and for just one moment, Sakura swore he wasn’t the man she had known for two decades, for one second, she swore he was **something else **hiding in human skin. 

She couldn’t hide her shudder this time. 

“Don't eat breakfast, you may puke.”

And then he was gone. 

She swallowed in what she promised herself wasn’t fear because this was Kakashi**-sensei** and he had never hurt her before. 

He had never hurt her **before.**

* * *

  


Sleep was fitful that night, lying in bed Sakura couldn’t get her former teacher out of her head. 

That wasn’t Kakashi. He was cold and dark, it wasn’t just being on time, it was the way he treated them like they were weren’t students… like they were chemistry projects. 

His eyes haunted her, too black to be the ones who’d crinkled with laugh lines, laughing at some stupid joke she’d made. 

They weren’t the eyes who watched over her every day on the front lines, attentive and protective in such a caring way, they made a warm feeling knot in her stomach. 

He wasn’t the man who’d tucked her head into his chest and let her sob from the loss of her first friend, stroking her hair back gently and whispering sweet nothings in her ear. 

_ Kami, I think I loved him. _

The realization was a kick in the gut, the realization she was in love with a man who no longer existed, who, based on today’s experience, never **would **exist. 

Hot tears flowed down her white pillowcase, and for the second time since she had time traveled, Sakura sobbed. 

She cried for the man she cradled in her arms and watched die, the life slowly drained from his bloody body. 

_ “Don’t Saka-chan, save your chakra. It’s okay. Hey, look at me,” Calloused fingers pulling my chin up, begging me to look him in the eyes as he left me. _

** _Don’t go, please don’t go. _ **

_ Beautiful grey eyes the color of thunder clouds met mine, his scar only adding to their strikingness. I tried my best to keep teardrops from dripping onto his wound as I crouched over him, a hand-coated with green chakra over his chest where a katana had been thrust. _

_ I’d combed back his silver locks with trembling digits, even after fighting a war, his hair was still as soft and gravity-defying as it had always been. _

_ The clashing of swords and battle cries were sounding from every direction as the battle waged on, but I had lost my will of fire. _

_ The only thing I cared about was right in front of me, stroking my cheek to wipe away my tears even as he lay bleeding out. _

_ So much kindness for a man who had walked through hell. _

_ “Even after all this time, you're still the most incredible person I’ve ever met.” He smiled gently beneath his mask, his stupid, Irrational, uNnEEded, _ ** _fUcKinG MAsK-_ **

_ “Hey, hey, Saka-chan please-” Blood seeped into the blue cloth as he coughed. “Promise me you won’t stop. I gave up once… I gave up living- I nearl… I nearly missed meeting… meeting yo…u...” _

_ His hand fell to my lap, limp and unmoving and everything that Kakashi Hatake was not. _

_ Shinobi and white Zetsu alike, paused for a second, just one moment, as an inhuman wail erupted over the battlefield. Full of pain and anguish, grief and loss, and most of all… _

_ Full of _ ** _Rage. _ **

That night, Sakura didn’t dream of the horrors of war. 

She didn’t dream of death. 

She didn’t dream of blood. 

She dreamed of a summer festival where she wandered into the woods, stumbling across the most enchanting wolf she had ever seen. 

Silver with the most breathtaking grey eyes. 


	7. Redo

After her restless night, Sakura had no problem with following Kakashi’s instructions to skip breakfast. 

The food made her stomach do flips anyway. 

The walk to the training grounds was refreshing, the morning breeze still cool to the touch. 

Her clothes had no sleeves, yet Sakura only found herself grateful for the cold temperature, hoping it would wake her up before the bell test. 

When she arrived at 6:25 she wasn’t surprised to see Naruto’s limp body snoozing under a tree and Sasuke running through various stretches and Katas to warm up for their first day of practice. 

“What do you think we’ll be doing for training?” She questioned airily, lightly probing to see where exactly she was with Sasuke. 

_Please don’t be a fangirl, please don’t be a fangirl, please-_

“A test of our abilities to see what he should teach us, the dobe will most likely be dumped due to incompetence.” Sasuke scoffed at the boy who was still snoozing away. 

Giggling lightly she moved over to Naruto, slowly shaking his shoulder she said as gently as possible, “ Naruto, It’s time to get up. Kakashi-san will be here any second.” 

“Hmmm… Ramen… No Kurama get your own Dango…” Naruto muttered, blindly trying to knock away hands that weren’t there, sitting up groggily he seemed to finally remember where he was. 

“Hey, Sakura-chan! I’m so gonna kick the bastard’s ass, then we can get ramen after and leave behind Sasuke-teme!” His gaze was so full of hope she had to stop herself from flinching. 

Once upon a time, he had looked at her like that every day and asked for her company and she would yell or insult or hit him. 

He deserves better, and this time he’ll get it. 

Sakura offered him a hand off the ground, “I would be honored to eat with the future Hokage.” 

Naruto's grin was so large, she was afraid it may break his face. 

Sasuke scoffed from behind them, “I wouldn’t eat anywhere near the dobe if you want to return home with clean clothes.” 

Naruto began his wild pointing, jumping on the balls of his feet demanding, “Oh YA! Say it to my face -ttebayo!” 

“I would but I can’t tell what end to talk to.” 

“That’s it you bastard!” 

Sakura was about to intervene in their rapidly approaching wrestling match, but someone got to it first. 

Two glove clad hands grabbed her teammates by the back of each of their shirts, easily holding up a struggling preteen in each fist. 

Kakashi dumped them both on their butts, stuffing his hands back into his pockets, “I see your enthusiasm is quite… potent.”

He regarded her and the two scowling boys on the ground in faked disinterest. “You will be channeling your excitement into your examination today and if you have potential, into passing as well.”

Naruto squinted at their teacher seeming skeptical, “ We already graduated, why are there **more **tests.”

Kakashi seemed to consider Naruto’s words for a moment while adjusting the placement of his glove, head snapping upwards with a haughty raise of his eyebrow, his voice was smooth and calm, “If you do not perform up to par during this assessment, you will be sent home. Not to the academy. Konoha has no need for lackluster children.”

She straightened, glancing at Sasuke who seemed to have sensed the same threatening undercurrent, even Naruto showed he did, in fact, have a serious mode. 

Kakashi pulled out three strings with shimmery bells tied to the ends, from his vest, waving them a bit back and forth as if to keep their attention. 

“Each genin gets a bell, a timer will be set for 7:00, the game ends when one person takes a second bell or the time runs out. Get two bells and you automatically pass, the other person with one bell does as well, whoever was the owner of your second bell does not and runs off home. If you think you can take my bell,” he dangled the three bells, now joined by a fourth, voice taunting and quiet. “Then everyone involved with stealing it passes.”

_It’s the bell test from my time with a nasty twist_

“Any questions?” 

Not even Naruto had anything to say as they each grabbed their bell. 

Glancing at her teammates she began rationalizing what was happening, this isn’t the original bell test where it was just about working together to get the bells, now you must work together while hoping you aren’t stabbed in the back by your allies. 

Sakura immediately tied it around her neck, an easy to protect spot that should make guarding it much easier, Naruto had shoved it in his pocket haphazardly, and Sasuke had slipped his away before Sakura could see it. 

“The alarm starts- **now**.”

Like a dart, Sakura dived for the trees, hidden in the foliage she would have a better vantage point if she was attacked, and hopefully, she would be able to see Naruto from here. 

Quietly she slipped through the leaves using her chakra to stick to the tree trunks and flip over branches, scanning the area for- there!

A flash of orange to her right. 

Ducking through the bush to the mini clearing she caught up with her more agreeable teammate. 

She breathed a sigh of relief, “Naruto-”

Then Naruto made a mad tackle for her waist, yelping she dodged, scrambling up the closest tree and using the height to intimidate her over-excitable friend. 

“Naruto wait! This whole exam’s rigged, we don’t need each other’s bells to win. He wants us to work as a real three-man genin team, meaning that we work together to get Kakashi-san’s bell.” 

Naruto looked like he didn’t understand a word she was saying. 

Rolling her eyes she gave him the short version, “Genin teams have to have three members, the only way we can move forward is by getting Kakashi-san’s bell and passing altogether.” 

The light bulb in his head finally seemed to go off, “Oh I get it -ttebayo! We gotta get Sasuke-teme too then, right!” 

“Ya, thank goodness I found you so easily, I have no idea which direction he went in. Do you?” 

Nodding vigorously, Naruto grabbed her hand and started dragging her deeper into the vegetation, at that point she gave up on the idea of struggling and just let it happen. 

Naruto was a force of nature and as long as he was doing something productive, Sakura could deal with it. 

"I got a weird chakra so I can memorize other people's chakra stuff, then I can find 'em when I wanna play a prank and stuff."

She filed that interesting fact about the Kyuubi's chakra away for later. 

Traveling on the forest floor, Sakura noticed something odd about the trees. 

_Their glinting…. It almost looks like spiderwebs. Spiderwebs…. Ninja wires!_

She realized it was a trap in the nick of time, yanking Naruto out of the way of Sasuke’s ninja wire spider web. 

“Sasuke!” She called, attempting to shout as quietly as possible. “Sasuke, we know what the real exam is.” 

A black-haired figure emerged from behind a tree, Sasuke seemed to be using his Uchiha coloring to his advantage. 

“What are you and the dobe so sure you did? **Real **exam?” 

Slapping a hand over Naruto’s mouth, Sakura began to explain as quickly as possible, “genin teams need three members, there’s only one way for us all to pass the test and that’s to team up and attack one mutual target.” 

“And how can I know you won’t just choose the easy way out and steal my bell to pass?” 

_Urgh, he still doesn’t get it, there _ ** _is _ ** _no other way to pass. Grab a second bell and be subject to the scum abandoning teammates talk before being given a second chance. _

“Listen, trust is what we need right now. Taking a second bell won’t really let you win if the point of the test is teamwork if anything you’d probably be the one to fail. Besides, I’ve got a plan…”

* * *

The trap was set, now all that was left was getting Kakashi to go towards it. 

Sakura waited by the original clearing, waiting for some sign that their fourth teammate was there and watching. 

When still there was no noise, she smirked, Kakashi was definitely nearby. 

There were only so many things that could keep every bird in the training ground from singing, all of them at once. Any large and deadly predator would do the job well enough. 

_Alright, let’s get this show on the road._

Turning and darting into the trees, Sakura sprinted at the highest speed she could go without knocking into anything dangerous. 

The brush of another chakra signature against hers was enough to reassure her she had in fact gotten his attention with her burst of speed. 

Twisting in the air, she threw a volley of shuriken behind her, _gotta keep him interested. _

Just a little bit more and- there! 

Sasuke’s weaving with ninja wire was impeccable as always, she slipped through the predetermined hole in the web, waiting for the signal. 

The chakra was approaching fast, hardly caring enough to hide it, Kakashi was nearly on top of her and- 

“Sasuke-Teme!”

The signal! 

Right as Kakashi burst into existence where Sakura once stood, a replacement jutsu brought her a safe distance away as she watched Naruto charge their team leader head-on. 

Shadow clones erupted everywhere, covering Kakashi as best as they could, trying to restrain him and keep him occupied until Sasuke could finish their plan. 

Then lightning was coursing through the wire, conducted by the metal, it zapped through the web in a beautiful wave of blue and white light. 

All at once the web glowed with the otherworldly radiance, smoke from the destroyed shadow clones blocked their view of the trap’s victim but there was no way-

There he stood, within the web, completely unharmed. 

“Clever to channel lightning through the conductible wires, but there was one oversight. My affinity is lightning.” His hand enclosed itself with the very electricity they had put into the strings, the chirping of a thousand birds filling their ears as he slashed through every wire in seconds. 

Once his technique faded, they were able to hear the ringing of an alarm nearby. 

She heard Naruto groan pitifully, whining about needing to be a genin to someday be Hokage. 

For the circumstances, Sasuke seemed to be taking it better than she expected, he wore a brutal scowl and had dented his fingerprints into his kunai given the strength he was using to squeeze it. 

_Better the kunai than Naruto, I suppose. _

She let the disappoint settle in her stomach before asking, “Who failed and who passed?”

Kakashi considered her, his eyes roving over the clearing they rigged up, and then towards the boys behind her. 

“Teamwork is essential to a shinobi’s existence, to forget that is to forget the purpose of the three-man squads. Sakura discovered the hidden task immediately and with hardly any prompting, you both listened to her ideas and reasoning. To any other jounin sensei, that trick would have been effective, unfortunately, you have the only jounin instructor in the village with a lightning affinity.” 

Something akin to approval passed through his eyes for barely a nanosecond, but it was there. 

Pride swelled in her chest. 

He wasn't her Kakashi.

But maybe hating him for that, made her the unreasonable one. 

Maybe...

Maybe this could work.

“Advice to you all, if a shinobi is taunting you towards one thing, it’s because the true object of value is hiding in plain sight. Training every day, all day, same time, right here.” 

A smile stretched over her face as she turned to see the other two equally as pleased. 

“Oh, and congratulations, you’re the first team to ever pass on the first try.”

And with that, he was gone once again. 

“Ya, we won -ttebayo…” Naruto was beginning to drift off, shaking her head, Sakura bumped her hip into his, startling awake the boy trying to sleep standing up. 

“WA- I’m here I’m **awake!**” He squawked, rather undignified, startled, he flailed for a moment. 

However, that moment was long enough for a flash bomb he’d had in his pocket to get stuck to his hand, and **BOOM-**

Suddenly all Sakura could see was white. 

“SAKURA-CHAN!” Naruto’s panicked screaming was a slight comfort, at least she was still alive and where she last remembered. 

“**Dobe,” **Sakura couldn’t be sure, but that had sounded oddly like Sasuke shoved Naruto out of the way and it was **Sasuke **who was gently pushing back her lids and examining her eyes. 

It made sense, Naruto would probably poke out her eye on accident if he ever got that close. 

And living with a dojustu that damages your eyes when you use it too much, probably made him use to this. 

The world was a blur of light, fluorescent white and shadows where she was pretty sure Sasuke and Naruto were. 

All she could make out was a vague sense of their color scheme, Naruto’s yellow and orange, Sasuke’s blue and black, and when looking down at herself, the blood-red coloring staring back was certainly her outfit. 

“Come on, don’t be too fast. I’m not yanking you out of a bush if you rush yourself.” Came the apathetic and slightly irritated voice from her right, the speaker grasping her arm gently to steer her as her other teammate did the same to her left side. 

It took a long five minutes of cursing (Naruto), insults (Sasuke), and depressive thoughts (Sakura) for them to get back to the road. 

The buildings were blurred together into a giant gray blob, she couldn’t even see where in the village they were. 

She turned to glance at Sasuke who was talking to Naruto and her in a voice hardly more than a whisper. 

_Oh, _her mind supplied unhelpfully, _my eardrums have been affected too. Their talking normally but I can’t hear them. _

Several times, she attempted to ask where they were headed or if she needed the hospital, and her parents would worry if she was out too long, but each time her hearing barred her from understanding them. 

_They must have been yelling in the forest, but now that we’re in public- _she couldn’t see but she still swiveled her head and watched the blobs of varying shades of green move before her- _yup definitely in public, meaning they can’t be screeching. _

Finally, it seemed that they had reached their destination, it looked like a large brown mound of red stuff and black stuff, a **huge **mound given how far it stretched. 

_Maybe this is the hospital. _

That theory was busted when a front piece of the mound swung towards her, _a door, _and someone stepped out. 

There were only three words to describe whoever it was; 

Tall, 

white, 

black.


	8. Realizations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My life is spiraling so that's great, so not excited for school to start up again. Send prayers, I ain't ready for dealing with this shit. Hope ya like the chapter though, it was super hard to write cause I didn't know HOW to write it. This is one of the major chapters in the story so it wasn't flowing as nicely when I was writing it, as the other's did. You'll understand when you read it. Anyway, like, subscribe, and comment your personal worst day of school.

Still mostly blind to the world, Sakura stumbled into what she could now assume was a house. 

Whoever had answered the door was now guiding her with a gentle but firm hand placed on her forearm. 

Sasuke and Naruto must have been entertaining themselves behind her, because she had seen no orange since entering, and knowing Sasuke he would stick like glue to Naruto’s side while claiming he hated the blond’s guts. 

“Where am I?” She tried before being reminded that her ears weren’t currently working and therefore she would not hear the answer. 

Oh yes, everything was just  **fine. **

(unbeknownst to her, everything was about to get a hell of a lot worse.)

Wherever they were, it was strangely colored, all blacks and reds with splashes of white or blue. 

By the look of the blurry hallway they were emerging from into a large room, it seemed to be a traditionally decorated home, immaculate in its cleanliness. 

Speaking off the room they’d entered, Sakura was taking a wild guess and saying it was a kitchen, the wide white box by the wall behind a long counter looking thing, gave the room’s purpose away. 

Noises that she could not distinguish or assemble into words, buzzed over her head as her helper seemed to be in a discussion with someone else in the kitchen. 

It took Sakura a moment of searching before realizing that there was a person by the dark cabinets, their ink-like hair and clothing seemed to blend into the kitchen decor. 

The figure rushed forward, an urgency to her step, and then Sakura was being tugged away from her friends, glancing back she caught a flash of striking orange but when it didn’t seem to be following her and her new guide, she relaxed into the hold. 

Allowing herself to be lead down yet another hallway, this one leading away from the kitchen, she was once again startled by the dark walls and how bare they appeared to be. 

_ No photos or paintings? Don’t people usually hang things on their walls?  _

Finally she heard a door sliding open as she and the mysterious figure came to a pause, she was ushered into a large room with what she could make out to be a bed in the corner as well as a large window that allowed the midday sun to flow into the darkly painted expanse. 

This time the voice that came from her right was distinctly louder and a bit easier to hear, the effects on her ears must have been beginning to wear off. 

  
  


The voice was still jumbled as the figure gently pulled her down to sit and began tilting her chin up, but it was also… feminine. 

_ A woman?  _

The situation only continued to get weirder as the, now identified as female, person began to prod under her eyes and push back her eyelids with practiced ease. 

Almost as though she had dealt with eye damage before. 

It made no logical sense to bring someone injured to someone’s house instead of the hospital unless it was closer and had access to an experienced healer. 

Sakura would much rather have healed it herself, but a genin knowing how to reverse damage to an organ as complex and delicate as the eye would certainly raise questions. 

The woman, whoever she was, must have been satisfied with her examination as she pulled back and began rummaging through something at her side. 

_ A medkit.  _

She must have found whatever it was she was looking for because suddenly Sakura felt something thin and papery slap onto her forehead and stick. 

Startled she jumped, reaching up quickly to tear it off before two warm hands grasped hers and brought them back to her lap, the voice was speaking calmly and low, using the way their voice sounded rather than the words it was saying, to keep her from panicking. 

A green glow eclipsed her vision as chakra from what must have been a seal, began flowing into her eyes and trickling to her ears. 

A subdued thrum of energy coursed through her as her eyes began to focus and the women before her started to sharpen from the blur she had been. 

Black eyes and hair with pale, nearly white skin, young but old enough to be Sakura’s mother. 

The sound of footsteps and yelling finally reached her ears and the uneasiness that came with not being able to hear her own heartbeat melted away. 

“Thank you.” 

“Of course, eye damage can be quite dangerous if not handled properly. I’m glad to have assisted you, Sakura-chan.” She spoke clearly with a warmth that made Sakura pause. 

This person she’d never seen before seemed almost… familiar with her. 

Almost like they’d met before. 

The women peeled back the seal from her forehead, meticulous and practiced. 

“Have you done this before?” Sakura asked, not quite sure what the answer would be. 

With a smile that softened her sharp features, she replied: “I often heal my sons when they over train their abilities, specifically my eldest, he often pushes his eyes farther than what is healthy.” 

Gently she was helped to her feet and her eyes were once again examined with care to ensure that the medical seal had, in fact, healed all the ocular damage. 

“Come, I’ll bring you back to your team. I’m sure they’re very worried.” She commented to Sakura as she made her way over to the door. 

And there, at that moment, with the sun streaming through the window and the door sliding open, Sakura’s eyes met the crest stitched into the mystery woman’s clothing. 

She swallowed back bile. 

Two sons, the oldest of which was constantly straining his eyes. 

The younger who was training to the point he injured himself. 

Black hair and eyes, white skin like milk, living in a large house, traditionally decorated, and no photos. 

_ It wasn’t just a house, was it? It was a clan compound.  _

She was no stranger. 

She was the Uchiha Clan’s matriarch and the mother of Sasuke and-

_ Itachi.  _

She was a dead woman walking. 

And Sakura’s mind blanched. 

Numbly she felt her legs bringing her back down the hallway to the kitchen they had left the others in. 

Sasuke, smiling at Naruto who had his back turned. 

Naruto, loudly proclaiming he would be Hokage as he attempted to grab a stick of Dango from-

And 

And 

And 

  
  


Itachi 

Standing there, alive and with a smile curling his lips, soft black eyes watching his little brother’s best friend try to take Dango from him. 

“I’m sorry, Uchiha-san but I need to be excused for a minute.” Her voice wavered, Mikoto’s brows creased with worry as her oldest son glanced up at their pink-haired guest. 

Sakura practically ran from the room before either could ask what was wrong. 

If she had kept herself in the room a moment longer, she would have heard a shinobi’s soft voice pondering aloud.

“Is she unwell?”

* * *

  
  


After rushing through a dozen empty rooms looking for the bathroom, Sakura collapsed into a random… bedroom. 

While many of the other rooms looked bare and empty, this one was much like the one she had been brought into for healing her eyes and ears. 

Actually. 

Now that she properly looked at the room, it wasn’t just a similar one, it  **was ** where she had been healed. 

Healed by an Uchiha. 

An Uchiha who should be dead. 

_ Kami, I think I’m going to faint again, but this time it won’t be from chakra exhaustion. _

It was the feeling of seeing Kakashi early but multiplied by a few hundred, the churning in her gut just wouldn’t stop. 

_ How is it POSSIBLE.  _

_ How is any of this! _

Gripping her hair, she tried to make sense of all that had just been revealed to her. 

_Itachi- Selfi_**_s_**_h Ba_**_St_**_eRD _**_CL_**_a_**_n_** **_K_**_i_**_L_**_L_**_i_**_N_**_g_** **_M_**_o_**_nsTeR- _**_is standing in that damn kitchen with his mother and little brother. _

_ He’s sitting there next to a fucking jinchuraki, in my time he would have been kill- _

_ My time.  _

It felt like all the air in the world had been sucked away, like her stomach had been packed with exploding tags, then set off. 

Not time travel. 

It was  **never ** time travel. 

_ Because I didn’t stop the massacre, I didn’t fill Kakashi with hostility, I didn’t fix things with Ino, I didn’t cause a friendship between Sasuke and Naruto, I didn’t change anything.  _

_ Everything was already changed when I got here.  _

So there in a random bedroom in a clan compound of ghosts, everything Sakura thought she knew fell away like a tsunami come to wash away all she thought she’d figured out. 

Because she hadn’t jumped through time when she’d activated Tsunade’s seal, laughing in the face of a god. 

She’d jumped through dimensions. 

And whoever the Sakura of this world was, now, she was nothing but ash on a war-torn battlefield. 

That innocent pink-haired kid, hardly past the age of twelve, had lost everything when she was shoved through worlds onto an already crumbling earth. 

Sakura’s dimension died, and that child died with it. 


	9. Hundred Kudos Special!!!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I am not Japanese and do not speak Japanese. The prefix stuff in this chapter may be wrong or a bit strange to those familiar with Japanese and I apologize about it in advance. Oh and sorry bout this update taking so long, but school started up and again and I've had zero free time lately. People were saying they enjoyed the relationship between Sakura and Kakashi in the past, so this is memories of Sakura's past life. I'll probably do more for special events like 200 kudos or 100 comments or something. Basically like how YouTubers do special things when they hit certain subscriber milestones. Anway, please enjoy!!

**Learning to reconnect**

The mission had begun as a shitshow. 

First, she finds out it’ll last for two months despite the fact she was hoping to compete in the Jonin exam that week.

Second, it’s her first solo mission and despite how proud she is of her ability to take such an assignment and be trusted to complete it, there was still the echo of loneliness in her heart when she realized she wouldn’t be seeing anyone she knew for the next two months. 

Third, it was in the heart of Snow Country and therefore she would be stuck freezing her toes off for an extended period of time, completely alone and without a talent for Katon jutsu. 

Fourth, she hated the fucking ** _cold. _ **

  
  


Blood was everywhere. 

It was everywhere, in her hair, under her nails, soaking her clothes everywhere it was everywhere everyehwere everywhawe- 

The corpses covered the ground. Three men and five women, all full of lacerations and kunai and _ so _ much poison. She’d tried to make it painless, she’d _ used _ poison meant to numb their senses and dull any pain. It would be quick. ** _Quick _ **but they kept going. 

They kept _ going _and they would have killed her, they would have killed her, she had to stop them. 

She **had **to. 

She had pumped them full of the toxin, coating her weapons in it until her hands dripped with deadly liquid. The ground was decimated and the landscape resembled that of a forest hit by an earthquake. 

Bone crunched under her fists and the first girl went down screaming, screaming at the other’s to rip off the leaf bitch’s ** _head. _ **After the first, everything was instinct, her mind hardly able to keep up due to the animalistic nature she went after the other seven shinobi. 

But she remembered each of their screams. 

The blonde man and blue-haired girl were married as of two weeks ago and the women with the sickle was in love with the red-eyed male, though she had never confessed. The girl with green eyes was a medic-nin who hated combat. 

The mission scroll told her to kill that one first. 

And the medic-nin used her last words to tell her team to murder the other medic-nin. It was an idiotic stereotype so many shinobi had, that medic-nin were somehow more noble or less willing to kill than other shinobi. That wasn’t it. It was just, some people like that girl, were simply not skilled physically and therefore they used medical ninjutsu to make up for it. 

It sent a shudder through her stomach to realize how much she could relate to that reasoning.

Mechanically collecting her weapons from her enemies flesh, pulling out each kunai and shuriken as bile rose in her throat, she struggled to forge on. Her breath came out in short puffs, the warm vapor clouding before her in the chilly air. The blood in her coat was beginning to freeze, red crystals flaking off as she shifted. 

Two months and it felt like she had forgotten who she was. 

On a team, she would kill and maim and complete the mission but others would be there to comfort her afterward. To remind her who she was, to crack jokes and maybe even hug her. But sixty-two days without an outlet, without anything that reminded her of home or her life before the mission…

It hit her why Anbu was such a dangerous job. It wasn’t just the high ranked missions. Sometimes an operative finished their assignment and left to recuperate in their residence, but they never returned home. 

She wondered if she would look the same in the mirror. Something inside her expected to see a stranger staring back at her in the reflection. 

It took her exactly four hours, thirty-two minutes, and fifty-seven seconds of constant running before she spotted the gates of her village looming over her. The sunset in the background as she wondered forward, passing the guards in their booth who recognized her blank look all too well and chose to leave her be. 

That was the thing about these missions, she mused, leisurely wandering through Konoha in the general direction of her apartment. They were dangerous for an entirely different reason than most. Feet scuffing the ground, her mind detachedly recognized what exactly was wrong with her. 

Trauma often caused people to break from reality for a time, and much like sleepwalking, waking up the person affected could do more harm than good. Human contact could cause an override of the victim’s senses and, in turn, send them into catatonic shock. There were cases where someone tried to hug a shinobi just returning from a deep undercover Anbu mission and the women suffered that exact condition.

She was dead before she hit the ground. 

Somehow she found herself by an apartment in a long hallway she didn’t recognize. Or maybe she did. It was all blurring, but she did remember some association between that door and the feeling of smiling.

Her apartment then. Because even in her state, she would know what home felt like. And when she twisted that doorknob and passed that threshold, she knew it was home. 

Waiting on the table, steam wafting from the cup in curling grays, was hojicha tea. Freshly made and still hot, it sat beside a small plate of Dango. She noticed with faint interest that her stomach was, in fact, growling. The beverage meant something to her, the smell was appealing and suddenly she was gripped by the fierce need to drink it. 

It was her favorite kind of tea, she remembered. 

The Dango stuck to her teeth and left a sugary taste on her tongue that she had not felt in so so long. Living off rations and scraps, she had no time for desserts or food that had a good taste, let alone any taste at all. 

Her body still refused to let her sit in the chair, refused to let her sit in such an open room. Enemy territory, her body screamed at her, and she ignored it. It wasn’t real, and it would leave if she waited long enough. Or maybe it wouldn’t. 

The uncertainty felt like a cold hand squeezing her heart. 

Her stomach seemed satisfied with the treat, and finally, the exhaustion hit her. 

Hard. 

The trip back alone could have killed her due to chakra exhaustion and it was abruptly very hard to see as her vision blurred. Stumbling her way down the small hall, she collapsed into a door she vaguely recognized as being something from her memories. 

Somewhere she had spent more time than the other rooms in the hall.

She nearly fell as the door opened and her hold faltered on the knob. Barely hanging onto her strength, she wobbled over to the large bed and promptly filled it with her aching limbs. Her clothes were bloody and ripped and disgusting but she couldn’t care less as her head met the soft pillow. It had been so long since she had slept in a warm bed, a mattress she could sink into, with a comforter that shielded her with soft material and comfort. 

The bed dipped. 

She could sense the nine chakra signatures, far too faint to be shinobi. They weren’t new, she had felt them from outside the apartment. But- But she hadn’t cared about being vulnerable before them. Something in her felt the chakra and reached out for it, yearned for its close embrace. 

So she allowed them to cover the bed. 

Warm fur brushed her cheek, a damp nose sniffed her hair, and she smiled, curling her hands into the large body laid out behind her. They laid with her, they kept watch, and they didn’t leave. _ Pack. _The word emerged in her mind as she slipped into a dream, that was what they were. And she was one of them. 

She would discover much later, months later, that it wasn’t her bed she had fallen asleep in. 

Even if it was hers she’d awakened to.

**Letting go to hold on tight**

_ Messy. _

Well, messier than usual. 

Sakura sighed as she picked grime from her loosened hair. Hair that reached her waist and badly needed to be cut. 

At least the mission had gone as planned for once; No saving random villages from an entirely new set of bandits, no Naruto turning enemy nin from their evil ways to see the light, and thank all that is holy, no run-ins with Sasuke or his new team. 

Selfish bastard, creating another team as if there weren’t people who had sacrificed years trying to help him already on a team he was once apart of. A team **he** left. 

Not selfish bastard.

Selfish bitch was more like it. 

Sakura snorted at her own joke, going unnoticed by the other members of her squad. Two of which were currently in an argument. If you could call Sai insulting Naruto without realizing it and being screeched at by an angry toad summoner an argument. 

Their other teammate was off somewhere, probably securing the perimeter while they waited in the clearing. 

Going by how dense the forest had been, and the fact they would be staying there for the night before returning home the next morning, she could make the educated guess that he would be at least another twenty minutes. 

With Naruto (the six-year-old, maturity-wise) and Sai (the seven-year-old who acted like a six-year-old, maturity-wise) distracting each other- she was fairly certain that was the chokehold that Kakashi taught Naruto half a decade ago when they were fourteen- Sakura managed to slip away undetected. 

_ It was better off that way, _ she remarked to herself in faint amusement. _ Who knows if Naruto may have tried to peak on me (following in Jiraiya-sensei’s footsteps) if he’d known. Maybe Sai would have seen it as some kind of bonding exercise or something and come along. _

She shuddered to imagine it. 

The other two may have not realized it, but she had sensed the stream nearby as soon as they had stopped to make camp, Kakashi most likely had known as well. 

Through the low hanging leaves and grasping branches, she eventually was able to make out the bubbling water, cascading over polished rock and quite clear despite the outdoor setting. 

The water looked cool and refreshing, something she desperately needed after a long day of chasing down rookie bandits who somehow got their hands on a couple hundred paper bombs without knowing what they did. 

Sakura was so done with these B rank missions, shishou had been keeping them close since the threat of the Akatsuki had truly left the shadows for good. Being on a team with a jinchuriki meant that caution was essential for keeping said jinchuriki safe, especially when it was Naruto, aka the boy dropped on his head so much as a child he had lost his self-preservation instincts. 

APPARENTLY, there were also rumors about Sasuke being the one to kill Orochimaru. 

She wasn’t touching **that **with a ten-foot pole. 

Stripping off her sweaty clothes, covered in dirt and splashes of blood, she slowly waded into the stream in only her undergarments, shoes being thrown to the side as well. 

There was nothing worse than soggy shoes. 

She shuddered at the thought. 

Sakura stayed alert of her surroundings, even as she dunked her entire head into the water to wash her disgustingly dirty pink locks. There was little more embarrassing than being caught by a teammate while bathing during a mission. 

And Sakura would know, team seven was many things, but respecting of boundaries was not one of them. 

She missed this. Being able to relax while not within the village’s suffocating walls, finally able to enjoy the nature she only ever encountered away from home. The sunlight streaming through the branches of large oak trees, dancing across the water’s surface, and warming her upturned face. Closing her eyes she allowed herself to lean back against the stream’s edge, the water settling at just below her chin. 

For a stream in the beginning of Autumn, it was surprisingly warm. Advantage of being near the border with Suna, something she would definitely be keeping in mind for her next mission by the other hidden village. She allowed her thoughts to wonder, it had been such a long time since she’d felt the sand between her toes, or had to shake out her clothes every hour, or even hid from the ferocious sandstorms. 

Or seen the Sand Siblings. 

Temari was still as devastatingly powerful as she had always been, Shikamaru would always grumble when he met her on missions but no one was buying his “she’s troublesome” excuse for his jitteriness to see her again. Yet everyone was still nice enough to not point out the extra scroll he would hand her when acting as a messenger. Sakura was betting they contained the same flowers he had begun to regularly buy from the Yamaka flower shop. 

There was simply no way they were **all ** for his mother like he claimed. And honestly, since when did he ever do nice, unnecessary things for other people? _ Especially _the mother he actively avoided in hopes he wouldn’t be forced into doing house chores. Sakura was ready to see Temari whip him into shape once they finally got hitched. Temari was a force of nature when she wanted to be, and it never failed to impress Sakura. 

But…

But. 

The women Sakura had met while Gaara was being held by the Akatsuki… That woman was truly strong. The way she had commanded the respect of the elders, of every shinobi. The way she had leveled headedly barked out orders and decided on military strategies- 

The way her hair was limp from lack of sleep and deep bags hung from her eyes. The way her entire face paled with horror and worry and fear every time she glimpsed the Kazekage’s hat. Yet she never once faltered in the quest to save her brother. **That **was the person Sakura aspired to be. 

Her fists clenched, _for Naruto, I will be that strong and steady sister who supports him even as he stumbles. Who would rip through mountains and break a mass murderer’s nose, if it meant protecting her little brother. _

She was going to find the Akatsuki, and she was going to rip Itachi’s fucking balls off with her ** _teeth- _ **

“Hmm… You really should learn to relax, Sakura-hime. You have the mystifying ability to make bathing in a stream look like a training exercise.” A deep baritone hummed behind her. She felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise, her body jerking forward in surprise. 

Whirling around to face him, she sank as low as possible in the water. Her face felt like it would never return to its normal shade. Wrapping her arms around her chest in a hurry, despite having on her bra, she struggled to control her breathing. He had truly caused her quite a fright, after all the thinking about powerful enemies and battle and ** _everything,_ **he’d nearly given her a damn heart attack!

“What the _ hell _ is wrong with you?!” She sputtered, backing away from the edge of the river, praying to kami _ please please tell me he didn’t and doesn’t see anything. _Squeezing her eyes shut, she attempted to not fly into a blind rage and attempt to dunk him in the water in retaliation. Or punch him into a boulder. The boulder was looking better by the second. 

He chuckled, low and calm, body in it’s usual slouched position with both hands stuffed into his pockets. He was watching her with clear amusement, a fact that was definitely not helping Sakura’s temper, or his chance of survival. “Ma Ma Sakura-hime, I only just arrived back from securing the perimeter. How was I to know my favorite teammate was by the very stream I only happened to stumble across?”

He gave her an innocent look. 

She wasn’t mollified. 

“Kakashi I’ve told you a million times, call me Sakura or Sakura-chan or ** _anything _**but THAT.” She punched the water’s surface and attempted to count to ten. It had been Sakura-chan since they had first met and stayed that way up until four months ago. Kakashi had been assisting Jiraiya-sensei with unsealing a few high-level scrolls they had recovered from yet another of Orochimaru’s abandoned labs. 

His close quarters with the older man was the only reason Sakura could think that he would have picked up using the same prefix for his female teammate that Jiraiya-sensei had been using for her shishou since the days of team Hiruzen.

It was still a sobering thought to remember that now there was no little snake summoner to call his boisterous friend an idiot because of his antics. No kind and gentle sensei to reprimand Jiraiya for aggravating his only female friend. There was only Jiraiya-sensei and Tsunade-shishou now. 

“I quite like Sakura-hime, it rolls off the tongue. I could always use Sakura No Kimi if that makes you more comfortable..?” He said flippantly like it hardly mattered. Like it didn’t change everything.

Sakura’s face flared bright, hot, and red all over again at his words. 

_ My beloved. _

And suddenly she could feel his gaze on her skin and it _burned. _It burned in the most pleasurable way. And suddenly she could feel how weak her knees were and it made her breath catch in her throat. Butterflies were swarming her stomach in a way they hadn’t since she was five years old and watching a little Sasuke scare away her bullies. 

And suddenly she could feel just how different from Sasuke he was. 

And it felt like a weight she hadn’t known of had lifted from her chest as she let that thought sink in. She would get Sasuke back, but she would do it for Naruto. Because at that moment, she stopped chasing the back of a twisted black-haired boy who never quite became a man. So stuck in the past that he was losing hold of his future. 

And Sakura.

Let

Go. 

She could see a gentle smile under his mask, the softening of his one visible eye as he watched her, and she allowed herself to smile back without the need to prove herself to someone who was never even looking at her, weighing the corners of her mouth down. 

“Actually, I think I’d be okay with that one.” She murmured breathlessly as she waded back towards the shore. Once, when she was younger and Naruto had only been back in the village for a few months after his trip with Jiraiya, she had stumbled across Kakashi at the memorial stone. She hadn’t said anything, just walked up to him and grasped his hand in hers.

He didn’t even look at her before threading their fingers together and tugging her into the warmth of his chest. It had rained all week and the air still held a faint chill to it, she had forgotten her jacket at home. Because that was who he is. 

Standing before the greatest reminder of everything he’s lost, crumbling and cracking and breaking into a hundred million slivers right before her, and still far more worried for her comfort than for himself. 

She hadn’t asked, but he had told her of his teammate. Another female medic-nin best friends with a loud and excitable dead last. He told her that after his team went from four members to three, Rin had asked him to braid her hair before they left on their first B rank mission. That Obito used to do it, and Rin didn’t tell Kakashi that, but he had still known. 

He said he mastered braiding hair because of the smile she gave him after he did it the first time. 

“My hair’s a mess now that I’ve washed it…” It was an invitation, a question. 

“Would you like me to braid it back for you?” Head tilted like one of his summons, he accepted her invitation. 

“Close your eye so I can get out, first.” 

He followed her instructions and she carefully made her way out of the water. A quick jutsu to evaporate the moisture on her skin and she slipped back into her clothes. Cleanliness felt amazing. 

“Done.” She said quietly as she settled onto the bank, dipping her feet back into the water. They had ached faintly from the running they had been doing all day but the cool stream soothed them immediately. She leaned back on her hands and waited for the other presence to settle behind her. 

The feel of his chakra moving closer was the only indication that he’d sat down before she felt warm fingers slide into the gaps of her hair. Threading through the strands and gently scratching her scalp, his hands felt heavenly. 

Her shoulders loosened and she leaned back into him, allowed her eyes to slide shut. Each knot was gently prodded until it no longer existed and the cotton candy locks began to wind together as Kakashi worked. 

His fingers brushed by her cheek and left trails of heat down her neck. Every hair stood erect in his wake, every cell buzzing with energy. Every fiber of her was hyper-aware of him. Her tanned complexion bleeding red, her cheeks flushing and her heart’s pounding sounded in her ears. Every inch of her skin felt licked by flames. 

She was burning and she had never felt more alive. 


End file.
